Over the past several decades, there has been an increasing demand among dentists and dental patients for more aesthetic dental restorations. High aesthetic quality is particularly important for easily visible restorations, such as those involving the front teeth, but may also be desirable for restorations involving teeth that are not as readily visible.
The dental industry's growing focus on aesthetic dentistry has led to the development of dental restorative compositions that more closely mimic the appearance of natural teeth. For example, tooth-colored, composite resin materials have been developed that can be used in place of, for example, metal amalgam fillings, to provide more natural looking dental restorations. In recent years, highly aesthetic composite materials, such as 3M ESPE™ FILTEK™ Supreme Plus Universal Restorative (3M Company, St. Paul, Minn.), have become available with shading systems and opacity options that make it possible for a dentist to create dental restorations so natural looking they are virtually undetectable to the casual observer.
Since human teeth fluoresce when irradiated with ultraviolet (UV) light, dental restorations that fail to exhibit fluorescence similar to that of natural teeth may become more noticeable when viewed under UV radiation or “black light” conditions. For example, dental restorative compositions that use resin systems that do not fluoresce as intensely as natural teeth and/or that contain components, such as color stabilizers, that diminish the fluorescence of the composition, may provide restorations that appear darker than surrounding teeth under UV light. Conversely, dental compositions that contain components with greater fluorescence than that of natural teeth may appear brighter than surrounding teeth under these conditions. Consequently, restorations made with such compositions, even if undetectable under normal visible light or full spectrum lighting conditions, may suffer from reduced aesthetic quality when exposed to UV light.